Are the Thunder Doing a Better Job to Keep Durant than the Cavs Did With LeBron?

Around the Association

• Last Wednesday proved why the NBA is the best of all the sports and why the frowned-upon, long regular season can provide the best in unexpected entertainment. James Harden went for a career-high 51 points; Chris Paul scored 41 points and dished out 17 assists; Russell Westbrook recorded his 10th triple double of the year as the Thunder scored 131 in regulation — Westbrook, Enes Kanter, and Anthony Morrow each put up 30+ points — and lost; and DeMarcus Cousins did him one better with a historic triple double featuring 24 points, 21 boards, 10 assists, and 6 blocks. It almost doesn’t even feel right to mention that Evan Turner recorded his third triple double of the season as well. This Association, man — nobody does it better.

• The season is long though. There is no denying that — and I think it might be wearing on TNT broadcaster Kevin Harlan. As the Spurs trounced the Heat in a not-at-all-anticipated Finals rematch, he broke out his Bane voice, which as Seth Rosenthal pointed out, is a bit of a recurring theme for Harlan. Perhaps we have something to look forward to during the next Spurs game.

• Speaking of the Spurs, they are forever a juggernaut until Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich leave earth to start a utopian society on the far reaches of space. They dispatched the unsinkable Warriors last night, becoming the first team to beat Golden State twice this season, and have now only trailed at the end of regulation once in their past 20 games (losing outright to the Mavericks, and going 17-3 overall as they fell to the Cavs and Knicks, of all people, in overtime). Kawhi Leonard has become an Ocean’s 11-level master thief who uses his giant claw-hands to take the ball from even the likes of Steph Curry like a Park Ranging bear helping himself to so many pick-i-nick baskets, and Pop can’t be bothered to care about opponents making half-court shots. (h/t Ball Don’t Lie)

• The plucky Brooklyn Nets have worked themselves up to 7th place in the East. With six games they left, they are two games up on both the 9th-place Pacers and 10th-place Heat, and they hold the tiebreaker over Indiana (though Miami has it over Brooklyn). They still have to face the Trail Blazers, Hawks, Wizards, and Bulls, so their playoff dreams will likely come down to the wire, but Brook Lopez hit a last-second game-winner against Brooklyn’s crosstown rivals on April’s Fool’s Day to keep the good times rolling. Better still, this came on Lopez’s birthday. And, of course, Brook Lopez was born on April Fool’s Day. And, of course, this is what he asked for.

• Standings watching isn’t just for the East though — and Steven Adams of the Thunder confirmed that “I just, like, stare at them all day.”

• Kyle Korver can become enriched uranium at a moments notice, as he did while scoring 11 points in 68 seconds against the Bucks. Among players who have made at least 100 3-pointers this year, he easily has the best accuracy at 49.8%. The gulf between Korver and the second-place Eric Gordon (45.0%) is enormous, and only three others — Steph Curry (43.4%), J.J. Redick (43.3%), and Klay Thompson (43.3%) — are north of 43%.

• Sometimes Blake Griffin seems a divine archangel dropped down to our world from another realm. Other times, he seems like a 13-year-old.

• The other highlight of the week (year?) also involved the Clippers, but Chris Paul was on the oh-so-wrong side of the play. Nothing has created more memes than Steph Curry shattering CP3’s ankles, but the claymation recreation went above and beyond.

• It’s good to see that the 18-60 Philadelphia 76ers are still having fun. Despite the team’s management unveiling the tank job of the century by gutting the roster of all older talent in favor of cheap, young, and future assets, the Sixers have put together the league’s 11th-best defense, allowing just 101.5 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. They have — by far — the worst offense in the association (92.7 points per 100 compared to 97.1 for the 29th-place Knicks), but you have to start somewhere when 12 of your team’s 15 players have less than three years of NBA experience.

• As we have noted, nut shots are alive and well in the league, with the Warriors’ Shaun Livingston getting a one-game suspension for hitting Dirk Nowitzki in the junk while Goran Dragic of the Heat got a flagrant foul against the Pacers for this love tap to the down-belows. As you can see in the clip above, this is one area in which the NCAA has the upper hand. When student-athletes incorporate their nether regions into the game, the outcome is spectacular rather than crass.

• There are, however, even more reasons to be happy the Madness is nearly over. Though we will miss sad Calipari, the NBA playoffs are around the corner. Where people like John Wall do stuff like this.

• The Lakers long ago stopped mattering this season as anything other than a punchline. The only story is how bad they are. So it’s nice to see that head coach Byron Scott, who comes across publicly as humorless, is starting to get in some zingers of his own.

Next: East Playoff Race